If I can invite you to take up a copy of God’s Word, this evening we continue in our summer series as we’re looking at a number of the Psalms, and this evening I’d like us to take some time to look at the fifth psalm, Psalm 5. If you’re using the pew Bibles, it’s on page 449 of the Bibles.
Now for those of you who were here last Sunday, you will remember how Owen took some time to open Psalm 36 for us and he demonstrated that embedded within Psalm 36 there is this wonderful movement that is taking place, very analogous to the movement that often takes place in wonderful pieces of music. Think of classical music where it rises up and it comes and lowers back down. And the reason I mention that is because we see something very similar taking place in Psalm 5 that is before us this evening. Our psalm has five strophes, five movements you might say. One commentator said this, “Three of which are turned full-faced towards God, and the alternate with two that passionately denounce the enemy to him.” So there is a movement towards, away, towards, away, and back towards. He begins by crying out, we’re going to see. He cries out to God in prayer. But then he finds himself distracted, distracted as he is reflecting upon words or actions that inflicted him in a recent time.
Friends, have you ever been there – all you want to do is pray, praise God, thank Him, worship Him, but your mind leads you down a rabbit trail of some incident that happened recently that has deeply impacted you? And so you see how David will then teach us how he consciously redirects his focus, reminding himself of who this God is to whom he prays and in whom he rests and trusts, only to be distracted one again by his own thoughts on this rabbit trail. And then he reorientates his mind and he reorientates his heart to praise and to exalt God. I want you to look out for that movement that is taking place embedded within the psalm.
Evil, wickedness – it’s all around us in various forms, isn’t it? And evil and wickedness can truly perturb us, whether it be evil that is exposed on an international level or a national level, those things that take place where we wonder, “How on earth do people even do that?” Bring it closer to home – evil that is exposed within our own state or our own city. Maybe even closer to home – within your own community something has come to the fore. Maybe it’s even closer than that – it’s impacted you personally, whether that be from someone inflicting you or whether it be that you have given in to that temptation that you’ve tried to slay so many times before. It can perturb us. It can overwhelm us at times as well, can’t it? Especially when the affliction is directed, when it’s close to us, and its personal. And one of the magnificent things about the psalms, and we see it time and time again, is that these psalms – and you’ll see it in Psalm 5 – is that in the midst of life, whatever we are going through, whatever we are enduring, they speak to us, they encourage us, they instruct us, and they also reorient our gaze. They drive us to the Savior.
Now before we pray and before we read our passage for this evening, I do want to draw your attention to the structure of the Psalter up until this point. When we notice the macrothematic movement that is taking place in the first five or six psalms, it actually helps us to understand the flow of this particular psalm that is before us this evening. Psalm 1, you will know it quite well, but Psalm 1 confronts every single one of us as readers with the most urgent, individual matter that we might pay attention to. You must know where you are going, and you must be sure that you belong to the congregation of the righteous. Because you are either on the way of the righteous or you are on the way of the wicked. There is no middle ground in the sight of God. When you come to Psalm 2, you’ll notice that he then instructs the reader to consider where history is going. So it’s a movement from the individual to this overarching redemptive plan. Where is history going? Because you must consider the full picture; you must understand the full show, so to speak. You must reckon with the fact that the world is promised to only one – and it’s not you and it’s not me. It’s promised to the Messiah, the one who is perfectly righteous, who is the leader of all those who are on the way of the righteous. So that by the time we get to Psalm 3, the assumption is that you desire to know and you desire to live in accordance with the way of the righteous. And so Psalm 3, we notice that it is a prayer in the morning. Psalm 4 is a prayer in the evening. Psalm 5 is a prayer in the morning. Psalm 6 is a prayer in the evening.
And embedded within those psalms, he is dealing with a wide array of the challenges and the trials and the struggles that we face in our lives. But what is he teaching us? When we live in the way of the righteous, on the way of righteousness, there is a natural, daily rhythm that should be part of the cycle of our lives. This is the way to live. The day begins in prayer and the day ends in prayer. Our entire day, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same is to be one of prayerful submission to the Lord our God. And each psalm, not just the first six psalms but all of them, each of the psalms, they teach us how to keep our hearts aflame unto the Lord our God. Amidst the complexities of life and amidst this wicked world, how do we live to the glory of Him? It’s very refreshing, because the Psalms have a way of digging into the affections of our lives and allow it to be raw as we bring it before the throne of grace.
And so before we read God’s Word, let me invite you to bow your heads and let’s pray together. Let’s pray.
O God, we give You praise and thanks this evening once again for Your Word. Father, we pray that You would send forth the Spirit. Prepare our hearts and our minds, and take Your Word and plant it deep within us. Teach us, encourage us, most importantly, we ask that You would show us more of Yourself, for Christ’s sake and glory, amen.
Psalm chapter 5. This is the Word of God:
To the choirmaster: for the flutes. A Psalm of David.
Give ear to my words, O Lord; consider my groaning. Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray. O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.
For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers. You destroy those who speak lies; the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me.
For there is no truth in their mouth; their inmost self is destruction; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue. Make them bear their guilt, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; because of the abundance of their transgressions cast them out, for they have rebelled against you.
But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. For you bless the righteous, O Lord; you cover him with favor as with a shield.”
Here ends the reading of God’s holy, inspired and inerrant Word. Amen.
The story is told of John Rabbi Duncan who was invited to preach at the church of Moody Stewart. And Rabbi Duncan is said to have replied, “I’ll be glad to preach if you’ll take the prayers. I’m not able to pray at present, but I can preach a bit and would like it.” End quotation. We’re not given the backdrop as to why he was unable to preach on that particular occasion, but I do think it is a reminder to us that prayer is not simply about uttering some religious phrases and some pious language before the King of kings. There is something about entering the throne room and remembering who God is and who we are as we come to Him, even as children to a father. We need help to pray. That’s the best posture, is to remember that. We’ve been learning a lot about this – the importance of praying – and we’ve been asking, “Lord, teach us to pray,” as we’ve been working through the sermon series in the morning. And just as Jesus teaches us to pray The Lord’s Prayer, the model prayer, here, I think David gives us a way to be able to preach prayers that are very close to home when evil, when wickedness, when it’s dangerous, and when less than favorable circumstances are close to us. There’s a prayer embedded that we can actually use in the day to day of our lives.
Now friends, the tenor of the psalm, I want you to know, the tenor of the psalm is found in verse 2 where David cries out, “My King and my God.” And then immediately in verse 3 he says, “In the morning ,you hear my voice.” “In the chaos,” in other words, “in all that is going on in my life, I know that You are hearing me and You have me and You have these circumstances in the palm of Your hand.” And so as we work through this passage, I want you to listen, we are going to follow this as an outline. I want us to notice that we are encouraged to pray honestly. Secondly, we are encouraged to know your God, know our God. Thirdly, to pray for guidance and protection. And then lastly, to rejoice and to worship. So pray honestly, know your God, pray for guidance and protection, and then rejoice and worship.
Firstly, pray honestly, and you could add, pray honestly and expectantly. We see it in verses 1 through 3. Let me ask you this. How is your prayer life and how do you start each day? With God or is it apart from Him? John Bunyan is quite instructive here. He said this. He wrote, “He who runs from God in the morning will scarcely find Him the rest of the day. Therefore, go into the presence of God before you get into the presence of man.” I think that’s something to be mindful of, particularly when we are facing very difficult and trying times in our lives. Now in these first three verses, David is preparing an honest, and say I say an urgent prayer that he brings to the God and the King of glory.
Three things to notice. The first one is this. I want you to see who David addresses in these verses. On two occasions, verses 1 and 3, he cries out, “O Lord,” and then sandwiched in between in verse 2, he cries out, “My King and my God.” Do you see it? David is not praying to a distant stranger, is he? Do you see how, yes, he understands how Yahweh is the one, true and sovereign God who rules and reigns over the entire universe; He has all details in the palm of His hand. And He is the one who redeems a people for His own possession. David understands that. But notice that he also prays, “Lord” – and he drives it home because he understands that God is the one that has brought David into this covenant relationship where he says, “My King and my God.” That’s a remarkable expression of faith in the midst of turmoil in one’s life. The psalmist’s faith is of a dependent man under authority. Now remember, this is the king of Israel, the king of one of the most powerful nations at the time. And here he is acknowledging that even in his position there are some things that are beyond his control and he submits himself humbly to the King of kings. And this is what gives the prayer a very firm footing – understanding himself in light of who God is.
The second thing I want you to notice from these opening verses is I want you to notice the types of prayer that are expressed here. Commentators actually distinguish that there’s three types of prayer that are being mentioned and brought before God in these opening verses. There’s prayer with words, verse 1. There’s inarticulated groanings or murmurings or sighs, depending on the translation that you have, in verse 1. And then there is a prayer that is expressed as a cry to God. Now most of the time, let’s be honest, our prayers comprise well-reasoned, well-structured sentences and words, don’t they? But have you ever had times where, under great distress, when there is tremendous anxiety of the soul, where our prayers are simply murmurings or cries of help to God? And it is in those times that we need to be reminded that when words fail us, it’s our heavenly Father who still hears our prayers of humble dependence as we come before Him as His children.
The third thing I want you to notice in these opening verses is that David actually gives us an inkling as to how we are to pray – that we are to pray urgently, we are to pray persistently, and we are to pray expectantly. There’s an urgency to David’s prayer, isn’t there? You look at the opening verses. He says, “Give ear, consider, give attention.” He wants God to listen to him, not that God is not ever listening to His children, but there is a seriousness to David and what he is bringing before God. By the way, prayer is always serious. We should never be flippant as we come into the presence of the King, but there is an urgency to David’s prayer, perhaps more urgent than they were two weeks ago for him.
But David is also persistent. Do you see that? Notice the repeated phrase, “In the morning. In the morning.” In other words, “First things first.” Morning by morning, David prays, and it’s very similar as we look at David’s greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Morning by morning He prayed, and often through the course of the day He would withdraw from the crowds and He would spend some time in prayer, alone with the Father, knowing that the Father is alone the one who can sustain Him and work out the details. Even the phrases, if you look at the verses, “You hear,” and, “I prepare,” they also conjure up the image of routine, of habit. This is not something new for David. This is part of his life. He’s bringing these things before God.
Luke 18, many of you will know the passage – Jesus teaches us about the persistent widow who comes to the unrighteous judge. And of course there’s a difference in that we are coming to our heavenly Father. But as Jesus teaches us in that analogy with the persistent widow, He is reminding us that we are to be a people who know that God hears us and that God will act in accordance with His purpose and His plan in His perfect timing. But until we have an answer to our prayer, until we have peace in our own lives and conscience, what do we do? We pray. We keep coming. We’re persistent.
And then notice that David also, he’s not just urgent, he’s not just persistent, but he’s also expectant. See that in verse 3 where David resolved to “direct my prayer to you.” And then what does he say? “And watch.” And some translations say, “and wait.” Having prayed, here’s David, he’s keeping watch with an eager expectation, a patient hope for when God will work out the details of what is troubling him in his life. He is like a watchman on the walls of a besieged city, looking at the horizon, waiting for the reinforcements to arrive, having received the message that help is required locally. Friends, bring your requests to the Lord, but watch for God’s answer, because in watching for His answer, when you see how He is working out the details, it becomes part of the testimony of your life that you can bear witness to the Lord your God, but secondly, it leads you to stir your hearts and your affections to love God, to thank Him, to trust Him more, and to grow in your knowledge of Him. So let me ask you this – Brothers and sisters, how is your prayer life, especially in hard and pressing times? In the morning, seek God’s help in prayer. And don’t take matters into your own hands because that’s the way of the wicked. Come before the Lord in prayer.
And really what helps us – and this brings me to point number two – what helps us is when we know who God is and who we are before Him. We see this in verses 4 through 7. There’s a contrast that David brings to the table in verses 4 through 6 over against verse 7. Verse 4 he says, “For you are not a God who delights in wickedness,” and then in verse 7 he says, “But I, out of your steadfast love, will enter your house.” Do you see what he is doing here, the contrast? He is contrasting the righteous character of God with the way of the wicked who he is opposed to. He is opposed to those who are of the way of the wicked unless they cry out for mercy and grace.
Now one thing I want you to notice is in verse 4 there is a connecting word. The verse starts, “For you are not.” Now in some translations they have actually eliminated that connecting word which is unfortunate because what it does is it disconnects the root from the stem of what this entire psalm is about. But we want to know why David prays and why he is waiting expectantly. Well it’s because David knows who this God is. He knows who this King and what this King is like. He’s distinguishing himself from evil persons, reminding himself that he must be different if he is going to have the ear of God. In other words, don’t become like those who are on a different path. So look at the verses. Do you see how David describes the character of God here? Verse 4, “God does not delight in wickedness.” Verse 4, “Evil is not a guest in your presence.” Verse 5, “The arrogant cannot be in his sight.” This is what you expect from a God who is holy, holy, holy, isn’t it? Evil and wickedness and sin cannot be in His presence.
And then there is language that intensifies in verses 5 and 6 where he says that God hates evildoers, destroys liars, and He abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful men. That’s language that doesn’t always sit too well with us in the 21st century, does it? But friends, we are human beings, I think it’s safe to say, we take sin too lightly at times. If we truly understand that sin is an affront, it’s an act of treason against almighty God, we would not sin as grievously or as frequently as we do. We would really run from it. God calls us to be a holy people. If you are on the way of the righteous, He calls you to act in accordance with the way of the righteous. And that begins as we see our sin as God sees our sin so that it will also drive us to the one who is the giver and extender of mercy and of grace. Please remember – and I quote a commentator here – “We do not pray to a bland blob who is morally indifferent.” But in actual fact, we pray to a God who is pure, moral, holy character and who ultimately, as we draw close to Him, He will allow us to be increasingly sensitive to our sin. Are you growing in your knowledge of who God is, digging down into the Scriptures? As a result, are you becoming increasingly aware of your own sinfulness, the breadth and the depth to which the fall has impacted you and those around you? That’s a good thing. But don’t turn upon yourself at that point and carry the weight, but let it drive you to the arms of your Savior once again.
And you see, it’s David’s understanding of the character of God that becomes the very springboard to this honest prayer where he can be completely and utterly vulnerable and raw before God. That even though the wicked may not have the ear of God, notice what David says in verse 7. He knows that he may enter the very presence of God. There is a contrast here. God is opposed to those who are in the way of the wicked, but he may enter the house of God, the presence of God, not because of his own goodness, not because of his own religiosity, not because he is the king of Israel, not because of his own morality, But simply because of God’s grace and God’s steadfast covenant love towards him. And how exactly will David enter God’s presence? Do you see it in verse 7? He will bow down in the fear of God. He will bow down in the fear of God.
Just on the fear of God, this past week I was reading some treaties by George Swinnock, one of the English puritans, and he reiterates the connection between trust and the fear of God. And he writes this. He says, “When the knowledge of God is impressed upon the soul and the soul embraces God as the greatest good, the soul’s primary fear is any approaching evil that will violate the purity of what it loves and disrupts its delight in God.” See what he’s getting at? “When the new creature’s heart leaps with hope of heaven, he is then fullest of fear that he would displease God.” And then he says this to end. “The fear of sin is always the product of the fear of God.” “The fear of sin is always the product of the fear of God.” And so brothers and sisters, yes, know that the offer of the Gospel is absolutely free. Jesus invites us to come and all who repent and all who rest and who look upon the Lord Jesus Christ will be able to enter His presence by His grace. But let’s not forget that this God that we come before, that we are entering the very presence of – “my King” as David expresses. He’s the one that is clothed in majesty. He is in glory. He is beautiful beyond description and so much more.
Know and remember who your God is because in the face of evil, in the face of wickedness, in the face of your own sin, it will help you – and that brings us to the third point – to consider that we are called to pray for guidance and for protection. To pray for guidance and for protection. Some of you at this point may be asking the question, “What is the context in which David writes this psalm?” And admittedly, there is a lot of debate amongst scholars and commentators, but I think it’s fair to say that the majority position is that David, he is penning these words after his need to flee from the city of Jerusalem and from his son, Absalom. You may remember the details. If you don’t, you can go and read them – 2 Samuel 13 onwards. But Absalom, his son, rebels against his father, against King David. And he begins by initiating a smear campaign to malign his character. Eventually, the smear campaign turns very quickly and escalates to a physical threat which resorts in David being forced to flee the city of Jerusalem. And it’s amidst this time of darkness, this time of betrayal, that David prays for God’s mercy to allow him to eventually return.
Friends, that’s the context in which he is praying for guidance and protection. Now regarding these verses, listen to one of the commentators, Peter Craigie. He writes this – “Because the prayer is not only for protection from wicked persons but also a prayer for protection from becoming like them.” When we are angry, and David spoke to this a little this morning, but when we are angry, when we are on the receiving end, when we are struggling to forgive, when there’s bitterness that has taken root, we need to be a people who pray that God would keep us from ourselves and from becoming like the wicked. That’s what David is asking here. “I am on the way of the righteous. Lord” – you see it in verse 8 – “Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness. Make your way straight before me. Don’t let me become like the way of the wicked, but keep me and lead me in the path of righteousness.” David asked God to guide him and to keep him from revenge. His desire is to talk in God’s ways, despite the deception and despite the rebellion of his enemies.
It kind of reminds us of Jesus’ teaching as well on prayer, doesn’t it? Remember, He says, “Do not lead us into temptation” and “Keep us from the evil one.” “Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors.” It reminds you of Jesus’ life as well. Never was there one who was so vilified and hated as our Savior. He was hated by the spiritual forces of evil who were at work in the sons of disobedience. And He was maligned. He was scorned. He was jeered. And yet, He would withdraw in order to pray and cry out to His Father. Then even in His final days, as evil prompted image bearers to betray Him and to ultimately crucify Him, He prays, “Not My will but Yours be done.” Essentially, “Father, lead Me in Your righteousness.”
Friends, the Lord alone knows the end from the beginning. He is all wise. He is never failing. He promises to faithfully lead all who submit to Christ, irrespective of your circumstances and irrespective of the season of life you find yourself in. And so pray. Pray. Ask God to lead you in truth. Ask God to lead you in the path of righteousness, to direct your feet and to guard your mouth so that – and that brings us to the final thought – is so that we can rejoice in God’s covenant kindness and we can worship Him. Verses 11 and 12. That’s where David wants to be and that’s where God allows him to get to by the end of the psalm. Brothers and sisters, right theology is vital and it is good, but it must lead to hearts of doxology. To know who God is, and it doesn’t stir our affections and it doesn’t stir our hearts and lead us to worship and praise and adoration, there is something that is deficient there. To know that God is both a refuge in verse 11 and He is our shield in verse 12, that ought to be a wonderful sense that we belong, that He has us, and He is shaping and using the circumstances of life for His own purpose and glory. And as a result, we are told in verse 12, He will bless the righteous. He will bless the righteous.
This knowledge of safety and security shapes us and it stirs us. It shapes and stirs us when the world rages to know that we are loved in the Beloved and that we are kept under the sovereign hand of a God who cares brings us to a place of worship and adoration. Let me conclude with this because David ends his prayer with the confidence that nothing, nothing can finally hurt the righteous. Even death itself becomes the doorway into eternal life. But his cry is to his God and to his King, asking his God and his King to keep him on the way and the path of righteousness. Friends, when we are living in an arrogant and deceitful, lying world facing one pitfall after another, keep praying. It sounds such a simple statement, but it’s the most important thing you can be doing as a believer. Keep praying. And keep praying that the pray that the Lord taught us through David here, the prayer which is, “O Lord, lead me in Your righteousness because of my enemies, make Your way straight before me,” may that be part of our daily routine, our daily prayer life, and may God use it for His own glory and encouragement in our lives.
Let’s bow our heads. Let’s pray.
Father in heaven, we do rejoice and we give You thanks that You are a God who is not distant but You are intimately involved in the details of our lives. Father, we thank You that we go through seasons and through circumstances where it’s all rejoicing, it’s all thankfulness, but we also thank You for those trying times, those times where we just wonder how we are going to get through. Father, in all of these seasons, teach us and train us what it means to come before You in the morning hours and to close out our days in the evening hours on our knees before You. Father, strengthen us as Your people, and Lord, teach us from Your Word. Teach us anew every day. And we pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.